Introduction to N26
N26 stands as one of Europe’s most prominent neobanks, revolutionizing the digital banking experience since its founding in 2013. Initially launched as Number26, the Berlin-based fintech has expanded its operations across Europe and beyond, challenging traditional banking models with its user-friendly mobile-first approach.
Interview with Valentin Stalf, Co-founder and CEO of N26
Early Days and Vision
Q1: N26 started in 2013 when digital banking was still in its infancy. What inspired you and your co-founder Maximilian Tayenthal to launch N26?
The banking industry was ripe for disruption when we started. Traditional banks were struggling with legacy infrastructure, complex processes, and branches that many customers rarely visited. We saw an opportunity to create a banking experience that was truly designed for the digital age – simple, transparent, and mobile-first. Our vision was to build a bank that people would love to use, eliminating paperwork, hidden fees, and complexity.
Q2: What were the biggest challenges you faced in the early days of N26?
Obtaining a banking license was certainly our biggest hurdle early on. We initially partnered with Wirecard to launch, but we always knew we wanted to build a fully licensed bank to control the entire customer experience. Beyond regulatory challenges, convincing customers to trust a mobile-only bank with their money required significant education. The banking sector is built on trust, and establishing that trust as a new digital entity took time and consistent delivery on our promises.
Product Strategy and Innovation
Q3: N26 was one of the first European neobanks to obtain a full banking license. How important was this milestone for your growth?
Securing our banking license in 2016 was transformational. It allowed us to develop our own financial products, manage the full banking stack, and operate independently across Europe through passporting rights. This gave us complete control over the customer experience and enabled us to build truly innovative features rather than just creating a better interface on top of someone else’s infrastructure.
Q4: Your product suite has evolved significantly over the years. How do you decide which features to prioritize?
We have a data-driven approach to product development. We closely analyze customer behavior, feedback, and market trends to identify pain points and opportunities. Our product teams are structured around customer needs rather than traditional banking products. This helps us focus on solving real problems rather than just digitizing conventional banking services. We also maintain a culture of experimentation where we test new ideas quickly and scale what works.
Q5: N26 offers different subscription tiers. What’s the strategy behind your freemium model?
Our freemium model allows customers to experience the core N26 experience at no cost, while offering premium features for those who need more. This approach has been instrumental in both customer acquisition and monetization. The standard account demonstrates our value proposition, while our premium tiers like N26 Smart, You, and Metal cater to different customer segments with specific needs—whether that’s travel benefits, dedicated customer support, or exclusive experiences.
Market Positioning and Competition
Q6: The neobank market has become increasingly crowded. How does N26 differentiate itself from competitors like Revolut, Monzo, and traditional banks?
While many competitors focus on specific niches or features, we’ve built N26 as a full-featured primary bank account. Our differentiation comes from the seamless combination of elegant design, advanced technology, and comprehensive banking functionality. We don’t view ourselves as just an app with banking features but as a complete banking experience reimagined for the digital world. Unlike some competitors who focus heavily on cryptocurrency or investment products, we’ve prioritized getting the core banking experience perfect first.
Q7: How do you view the competition from traditional banks that are now investing heavily in their digital offerings?
Traditional banks are certainly improving their digital capabilities, but they’re constrained by legacy systems, organizational structures, and mindsets. Their digital solutions are often built on top of old infrastructure, whereas we’ve built our technology stack from scratch specifically for the mobile era. That said, we respect their customer base and trust they’ve established over decades. The competition ultimately benefits customers, driving innovation across the industry.
Q8: N26 expanded to the US but later withdrew. What did you learn from this experience?
Our US expansion taught us valuable lessons about market entry and focus. While we saw promising growth, we realized that to succeed in the US market would require significant additional investment at a time when we wanted to deepen our European presence. The regulatory environment, competitive landscape, and customer expectations differ substantially between regions. Sometimes, strategic focus means making difficult decisions about where not to compete. We’ve applied these learnings to subsequent market entries, ensuring we have the right resources and localization strategy in place.
Technology and Innovation
Q9: N26 has been built as a technology-first company. How does your technical infrastructure differ from traditional banks?
Unlike traditional banks that often operate on systems designed decades ago, we built our core banking platform from the ground up using modern cloud infrastructure. Our microservices architecture allows us to deploy new features continuously and scale elastically based on demand. We use real-time data processing rather than batch processing, which means account information is always up-to-date. This technical foundation gives us agility that traditional banks struggle to match and allows us to integrate with partners through APIs much more easily.
Q10: How are you implementing AI and machine learning in your products and operations?
AI and machine learning power many aspects of our service that customers may not directly see but certainly benefit from. Our fraud detection systems use machine learning to identify suspicious transactions while minimizing false positives. We use natural language processing to categorize transactions automatically and provide spending insights. Our customer service platform uses AI to route inquiries efficiently and suggest responses to common questions. We’re now exploring more advanced applications like personalized financial advice and predictive analytics for cash flow management.
Regulatory Environment
Q11: The regulatory landscape for fintech companies has evolved significantly. How has N26 adapted to increasing regulatory scrutiny?
Regulation is fundamental to banking, and we’ve always taken compliance seriously. As we’ve grown, we’ve invested heavily in our compliance and anti-money laundering capabilities. In 2021, we worked closely with BaFin [the German financial regulatory authority] to address their concerns and strengthen our systems. These experiences have reinforced our commitment to being a responsible financial institution. We now view our robust compliance framework as a competitive advantage rather than just a cost center.
Q12: How do you balance innovation with regulatory compliance?
We’ve built a culture where compliance and product teams collaborate closely from the earliest stages of development. Our legal and compliance professionals don’t just review products before launch; they’re involved in shaping the product vision and finding compliant ways to deliver innovative features. This approach means we can move quickly while staying within regulatory boundaries. We also maintain open dialogues with regulators across our markets to understand their perspectives and demonstrate our commitment to responsible innovation.
Customer Experience and Trust
Q13: What metrics do you use to measure customer satisfaction and trust?
Beyond traditional metrics like NPS (Net Promoter Score) and CSAT (Customer Satisfaction), we track customer engagement deeply—how frequently customers use our app, which features they rely on, and whether we’re becoming their primary financial relationship. We analyze customer service interactions not just for resolution speed but for sentiment and issue root causes. Trust is measured partly through deposit growth per customer and how quickly new customers begin using N26 for salary deposits and recurring payments.
Q14: Banking has traditionally been built on physical presence and personal relationships. How does N26 build trust without branches?
We build trust through consistent reliability, transparency, and exceptional digital experiences. Our communication is straightforward—we explain how our products work without banking jargon. Security is highly visible in our app, with features like push notifications for every transaction and easy-to-use card locking. When customers do need human support, we make it readily available through in-app chat and phone support. We’ve found that consistently delivering on our promises builds more trust than a physical presence ever could.
Business Model and Sustainability
Q15: N26 has raised significant venture capital. How has your approach to profitability evolved as the company has matured?
In our early growth phase, we prioritized customer acquisition and geographic expansion, requiring significant investment. As we’ve matured, our focus has shifted toward deepening customer relationships and expanding our revenue streams. We’ve diversified beyond interchange fees to subscription revenues, marketplace partnerships, and new financial products. Each market and customer cohort is now evaluated on a path to profitability rather than just growth metrics. This evolution mirrors the natural maturation of innovative business models—from proving product-market fit to establishing sustainable economics.
Q16: What are the most important revenue streams for N26 today, and how do you see this evolving?
Today, our revenue comes from a mix of interchange fees, premium subscriptions, and our financial products marketplace. Our premium tiers have shown particularly strong growth, demonstrating customers’ willingness to pay for enhanced features and services. Looking forward, we see significant potential in expanding our credit offerings, developing more sophisticated investment products, and deepening our marketplace partnerships. The goal is a balanced revenue model that aligns our success with providing value to customers rather than extracting fees.
Market Expansion and Growth
Q17: After consolidating your position in Europe, what are your international expansion plans?
Our core focus remains strengthening our position across our European markets, where we see substantial growth potential still. We’re taking a more measured approach to international expansion, ensuring we have the right market understanding, regulatory relationships, and localized offerings before entering new regions. We’re evaluating several markets outside Europe but will only expand when we can deliver the full N26 experience rather than a minimum viable product.
Q18: What do you see as the biggest untapped opportunities in European financial services?
The fragmentation of financial services represents a massive opportunity. Most Europeans still maintain relationships with multiple providers for banking, investing, insurance, and lending. Creating a truly integrated financial platform that serves all these needs seamlessly would deliver enormous customer value. We also see significant potential in serving small businesses, which face many of the same pain points as consumers but with more complex needs. The intersection of banking and e-commerce also presents interesting possibilities for embedded financial services.
Leadership and Company Culture
Q19: How has your leadership style evolved as N26 has grown from a startup to a company with over 1,500 employees?
In the early days, I was deeply involved in every aspect of the business, from product decisions to hiring each team member. As we’ve scaled, I’ve had to transition from being a doer to an enabler—setting clear direction and creating the conditions for teams to succeed independently. Building a strong leadership team has been crucial. I now focus more on strategic questions, external relationships, and maintaining our culture while empowering others to drive execution. The hardest part has been learning when to get involved in details and when to step back.
Q20: N26 has employees from over 80 nationalities. How do you maintain a cohesive culture across such a diverse organization?
Our diversity is one of our greatest strengths—it brings together perspectives that match our diverse customer base. We maintain cohesion through clear values that transcend cultural differences: simplicity, integrity, excellence, empowerment, and customer centricity. We’ve invested in structured onboarding to immerse new team members in our culture and created forums for cross-functional collaboration. We celebrate our diversity while uniting around our mission to transform banking. Operating as a digital-first company with transparent communication has also helped maintain connection across our offices.
Future Vision
Q21: Looking ahead five years, what does success look like for N26?
Success means becoming the primary financial hub for tens of millions of Europeans, deeply integrated into their daily financial lives. We aim to expand beyond traditional banking to address more of our customers’ financial needs—from investing to insurance to financial planning. We want to set the standard for what customers expect from financial services: immediate, personalized, transparent, and fair. Financially, we’ll be a sustainable, profitable business that continues to invest in innovation while delivering returns to our shareholders. Most importantly, we’ll maintain our customer obsession even as we scale.
Q22: What emerging technologies or trends do you believe will most significantly impact banking over the next decade?
The continued evolution of open banking and embedded finance will fundamentally reshape the industry. Financial services will increasingly be integrated into non-financial contexts, meeting customers where they are rather than requiring them to visit a banking interface. AI will transform risk assessment, customer service, and financial advice—enabling more personalized experiences and broader financial inclusion. Blockchain and digital currencies will find their place in the financial ecosystem, particularly for cross-border transactions and programmable money. Throughout these changes, customer expectations for seamless experiences will continue to rise.
Conclusion
N26’s journey represents the broader transformation of banking in Europe. Under Valentin Stalf’s leadership, the company has grown from a disruptive startup to a significant player in the European banking landscape, challenging conventions and redefining customer expectations.
As the fintech sector continues to evolve amidst regulatory changes, emerging technologies, and shifting consumer behaviors, N26’s focus on user experience, technological innovation, and sustainable growth positions it as a key player to watch in the ongoing digital transformation of financial services.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is N26 and how does it differ from traditional banks?
N26 is a digital-only bank based in Germany that offers banking services primarily through its mobile app and website, without physical branches. Unlike traditional banks, N26 was built from the ground up with modern technology, offering a streamlined user experience, transparent pricing, and innovative features designed specifically for mobile use.
Is N26 a real bank?
Yes, N26 is a fully licensed bank. In 2016, it obtained a full European banking license from the German financial regulatory authority BaFin and the European Central Bank, allowing it to offer comprehensive banking services across the European Union through passporting rights.
In which countries is N26 currently available?
N26 operates across most of the European Union and European Economic Area. While it briefly expanded to the United States, it has since withdrawn from that market to focus on strengthening its European presence.
What makes N26 different from other neobanks like Revolut or Monzo?
While all three are digital banks, N26 positions itself as a complete primary banking solution rather than focusing on niche features. N26 has emphasized building a comprehensive banking experience with a full banking license from early on, while Revolut initially focused more on currency exchange and international features, and Monzo built its community in the UK market specifically.
How does N26 make money if many of its accounts are free?
N26 generates revenue through multiple streams: interchange fees from card transactions, premium subscription tiers (N26 Smart, You, and Metal), partnership commissions from its marketplace offerings, and fees from specific services like overdrafts or foreign ATM withdrawals beyond certain limits.
